Early voters in Fulton County came out in droves this year, more so than in any other election year.
More than 260,000 Fulton voters cast ballots at a couple dozen polling locations and a dozen outreach locations this year, up from 152,563 early voters in 2012. The county also received nearly 18,000 mail-in ballots by Nov. 4. Those ballots will be accepted through Election Day on Tuesday.
Fulton's record-setting results are in line with a statewide trend. Some 2.38 million voters have already cast their ballots during Georgia's early voting period, surpassing the state's previous early voting record of 2.1 million set during the 2008 presidential election.
Early voting in DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett counties also exceeded previous years.
The tally of Fulton early voters is 261,988, which differs from the number included in a county press release sent Sunday — 260,934.
There was a discrepancy of about 1,000 total votes on a document showing the unofficial count of daily voters, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found.
Richard Barron, Fulton’s director of elections and registration, said the incorrect tally was caused by a typo or incorrect formula in the spreadsheet. Barron's office has not yet sent out an updated release.
Early votes won't officially be counted until 7 p.m. Tuesday as mandated by law, Barron said. He was not concerned about tally problems on Election Day.
“The only thing that’s a pain in Georgia is that we have to feed our absentee ballots by hand into 41 optical scanners one by one," he said.
During the past two presidential elections, Fulton has had problems at the polls, including voter registration lists that did not make it to precincts on time and counts that took longer than they should have.
As part of a nationwide effort to assure compliance with federal voting laws, Fulton is one of three counties in Georgia where federal poll monitors will be stationed on Election Day, the U.S. Justice Department has announced.
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